Folks, just planning ahead a bit here. I want to concentrate my learning curve on tunes that are commonly acceptable in a session. I’m sure the answer varies as to the quality of the players and the “history” of the established sessions. But, for a generic session, is there a core list of well-known and accepted tunes that one should be expected to know? I’m working on jigs, hornpipes, polkas and I’m now moving into reels. Many thanks.
If you do a search, you should find several threads on this, including one or two quite recent ones, though they may be on either the ITM forum or the whistle forum which is also where most discussion takes place.
There are several series of session tune books published in Ireland that would give you a repertoire with which you should be able to fit into any session. Check out the online shops and look for titles that explicitly refer to “session tunes”.
Mc Cullough’s 101 session tunes is fairly comprhensive and has most commonly played tunes…there is a list of his tunes printed somewhere on the net but I cant find it know …I think the tutorial, altough for whistle, is a good collection of tunes on four cds …
You could do a lot worse than starting here:
Great, many thanks. I’m already downloading John Walsh’s list and checking the web for the others. Best,